State of Alaska
Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development
Alcoholic Beverage Control Board
TEMPLATE FOR LICENSEE’S POLICIES
A Guide to Developing Responsible Business Practices for On-Premises Licensees
Modeled after the New Hampshire Liquor Commission’s House Policy Development publication.
Introduction
Your business is very important. It is valuable to you, your community, and to the economy. You have invested your time, energy and financial resources. Your business offers a place that meets local dining and/or entertainment needs and provides jobs. The best way to protect your valued business is through responsible business practices. Responsible business practices can help reduce your risk of criminal or administrative charges, and civil lawsuits.
Responsible business practices promote profitability and ensure a comfortable and safe environment for your customers. You should document your responsible business practices in the form of written house policies. If you have none, each employee may have his or her own idea about what the rules are, what they mean, and when they should be applied. House policies offer practical solutions to common problems faced by licensed establishments.
With good house policies in place, your employees will not have to make difficult judgment calls about who to serve or how to handle a tough situation - they know what to do because their responsibilities and your expectations are clearly spelled out. The portion of your house policies for customers are public documents that should be posted in highly visible locations as they are a set of house rules concerning customers' entry and behavior while in your establishment.
The portion of your house policies for staff is directly related to the portion for customers, in that it communicates management's expectations of staff regarding sale of alcohol and instructions for denying entry and ejecting undesirables. These policies indicate your establishment's responsible serving practices and intention to comply with the law and should be shared with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, your local police or troopers, your insurance company, and the community along with your patrons.
This manual is intended to provide guidelines to assist you in developing your own house polices as well as model policies which you can use when creating your policies. You may want to use our "Template For Licensee’s Policies" or modify them to meet your own specific needs, but three factors are common to all successful policies. In order to work, house policies must be written, communicated to your employees and supported by management.
Your employees must know that you will back them if they deny service to any customer or ask an unruly guest to leave. House policies create a framework within which your customers can enjoy themselves and your employees can operate both effectively and efficiently. In the long term, the responsible business will build a strong and loyal customer base.
Policy Development Guidelines
When Developing Policies…
Ø You may have a company policy that does not conflict with existing laws (for example, no discrimination).
Ø It is always good to obtain ideas from your managers and employees when writing new policies. They will be more supportive of policies they helped to create.
Ø Make sure policies are clear and specific.
Ø Provide all employees with a copy of the policies.
Ø To ensure that employees have read and understand the house policies, have them sign an Employee Acknowledgement Statement (Appendix A). Keep this in each employee's personnel file.
Ø Reinforce policies by giving regular training to employees.
Ø Between trainings, hold regular staff meetings. At the meetings, discuss the rules, recent problem situations, and ways to prevent future problems.
Ø Advise employees that you will spot check their compliance with the policies.
Ø Give them a regular performance review.
Ø Reward employees who do a good job. Provide rewards to those who engage in anti-drug events. Remember: Written policies, good communication, and a supportive environment will go a long way toward the success of your business.
Ø Review and update your policies regularly (annually if possible). This will ensure that your policies retain their relevancy and do not conflict with state law or administrative regulations.
Market Your Position
§ Explain and market your program internally with incentives and to customers (tent cards, posters, posted policies)
§ Indicate that you wish no customer to drink to intoxication
§ Develop a Mission Statement and post it prominently
MODEL MISSION STATEMENT
"The goal of our establishment is to be successful by providing responsible, courteous,
safe and professional food and beverage service. We will serve customers in a responsible, friendly, and professional manner. We are committed to adhering to all liquor laws while assisting customers in their decision to drink responsibly"
Monitor Your Door
· Post additional signage indicating that management reserves the right to deny entry to intoxicated and/or underage persons
· Assign a staff member who is currently trained in Alcohol Server Education to monitor the door to:
o Check for age and fraudulent identification
o Deny entry to intoxicated people
o Count the number of people on premise to prevent overcrowding and exceeding the legal capacity and provide for a proper customer to staff ratio
o Allow free access to fire and law enforcement personnel, and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
Market Food Actively
§ Providing a range of food menu selections enhances the marketability of your establishment
§ Have low-cost, low-salt snacks or food available at all times
§ Offering reduced food prices during late afternoon and evening will reduce the effects of alcohol
§ Provide incentives to servers for increased food sales
Responsible Beverage Pricing
· Do not promote drink specials or discounts. (Although drink specials are allowed by law if they run for a full calendar week for a period of time the licensed premises are open to the general public. AS 04.16.015(a)(3)) – 3 AAC 304.440).
· Do not serve the equivalent of several drinks in oversized glasses - use standard glassware. The maximum drinks a patron can have in front of them is two
Promote Alternative Beverages
Ø Stock a good selection of light and non-alcoholic beer and wine
Ø Price non-alcoholic products competitively with alcohol products
Ø Promote non-alcoholic drinks
Ø Serve alcohol-free drinks in containers that are easily distinguishable from alcohol drinks
Ø Evaluate servers on total sales including non-alcoholic products
Train All Staff
o Even though there is a 30-day grace period by state law, have all staff trained as soon as possible in Alcohol Server Education and ensure all employees who serve alcoholic beverages, or employees who check ID have valid server cards on file. Some municipalities may require servers to have the training prior to employment.
o Provide all staff with a copy of the establishment's house policies and train them on how to use it
o Keep an incident log of problem situations (Appendix B)
o Regularly review the policy and the incident log with all staff
o Although state law does allow servers to drink on the job, you may want to prohibit drinking on the job by all staff and managers
Adopt a Safe Transportation Plan
§ Identify transportation options
§ Confirm necessary arrangements with outside companies
§ Ensure your employees feel comfortable in their understanding of when to use the program
§ Advertise your program
Never Serve Underage Individuals
· Verify that all servers are legally old enough to serve alcoholic beverages
· Ensure that staff understand their legal duty regarding service to underage and intoxicated individuals and provide them with clear guidelines on how to deal with these individuals
· Establish with staff when to ask for identification
· Train staff on how to identify underage customers
· Identify what forms of identification are acceptable
· Train staff on how to recognize a fake ID and what to do when one is presented
· Serve alcohol-free drinks in containers that are easily distinguishable from alcohol drinks
Underage Compliance Checks
o Train staff as to what a compliance check is
o If a staff member is the subject of a compliance check, remind him or her to remain professional at all times regardless if the Underage Buyer was served an alcoholic beverage or the sale was denied.
o Verify that a compliance check has occurred by retaining the Underage Buyer’s identification that was presented and wait for an ABC Investigator or other law enforcement officer to personally retrieve it
o If the identification card is not retrieved in a reasonable amount of time (five-minutes or so) then it most likely was not a compliance check. Local police or troopers should be notified immediately.
Monitor Drinking of Customers
o Provide staff with guidelines for recognizing the signs of intoxication
Manage the Intoxicated Individual
Ø Deny entry to intoxicated customers
Ø Monitor consumption of customers to avoid intoxication
Ø Deny further service to intoxicated customers
Ø Ensure staff are aware of effective ways to deal with intoxicated individuals
Ø Reinforce policies by giving staff incentives for effectively discouraging and managing intoxicated individuals
To: All Employees
From: Management
Subject: Reducing Youth Access to Alcohol
______________________________________________________
It is everyone’s job to ensure patrons who are buying or drinking alcohol are at least 21 years of age. The state of Alaska issues driver’s licenses and identification cards to persons under 21 in a vertical format with a red banner listing the month, day and year the holder will be 21 years old.
· We will request proof of age (I.D.) from any patron who appears 30 years of age or younger.
· When selling pitchers, we will request an I.D. from each person who receives a glass.
· We will use a pre-printed age chart as a quick way to figure age. The age chart, which says, "To Buy or Consume Alcohol, You Must Have Been Born on or Before [date]," will be updated daily.
· We will use separate types of glassware to tell alcoholic drinks from non-alcoholic drinks.
To help employees do their job, managers will post the following sign in the business:
a) "NOTICE: Our employees request I.D. from any patron who appears to be under age 30. Thank you for your cooperation."
b) We have the right to, and will, refuse service to any patron who cannot produce proper I.D.
· All servers and door personnel will be trained on a regular basis to ensure that they have the most up to date and relevant information concerning their responsibilities regarding the state’s alcoholic beverage laws and regulations. We will know what are considered legally acceptable forms of identification for the purchase of alcoholic beverages.
We may accept the following as proof of age:
· A driver's license issued by the state of Alaska, or a valid driver's license issued by another state which bears the date of birth, name, address, and photograph of the licensee.
· An identification card issued by the state of Alaska, or identification card issued by another state which bears the date of birth, name, address and photograph of the individual.
· An armed services identification card.
· A valid United States passport or a valid passport from any country.
· When an underage patron moves from one station to another, servers will tell each other.
To: All Employees
From: Management
Subject: Advertising, Promotions and Pricing
______________________________________________________
§ We will maintain an atmosphere that promotes socializing.
§ We will provide things to do other than drinking.
§ Advertising materials and campaigns will not use alcohol as the main way to attract patrons.
The following practices are unlawful:
1. We will not use promotions that encourage intoxication. There will be no drinking contests.
2. We will not advertise, “Buy one drink, get one free, two for the price of one, or all you can drink.”
3. We will not offer free alcohol or sell them below cost.
4. We will not lower alcohol prices to promote sales.
5. We will not promote a “Happy Hour” because this promotes too much drinking.
6. We will not promote drink specials to certain groups of people. For example, “Ladies’ Night.”
Instead:
§ We will use food or entertainment for cocktail-hour specials. For example, we will have a “Hungry Hour.” Appetizers will be free or offered for a low admission price. This brings in patrons and holds down intoxication.
· When we promote a special cocktail, wine or beer, we will offer a comparable nonalcoholic drink.
§ If we promote or list alcohol on a menu or display, we will promote a nonalcoholic drink also.
§ We will promote food and other non-alcoholic items using table tents.
§ If we offer free appetizers or snacks, we will offer them to any patron, whether or not the patron buys alcohol.
To: All Employees
From: Management
Subject: Drink Service
______________________________________________________
Ø Management and supervisors will support servers’ decisions to stop or refuse service to any patron. If they don't, the server might not act so responsibly in the future.
Ø We will discourage intoxication and not serve any person who looks or acts intoxicated, even if they are taking a taxi or have a “designated driver.” This includes employees and regular patrons who may “always act that way.”
Ø When a patron has been “cut off” in one person’s station, that person will tell other employees.
Ø During shift change the outgoing server will brief the oncoming server regarding the length of time a patron has been at the establishment, what they have been drinking and how many drinks they have had. This will help the oncoming server to avoid over serving the patron.
Ø Responsible service techniques may reduce a server's tips. Therefore, we guarantee the tip to any server who stops service to a patron who displays signs of intoxication.
Ø Drinking on the job impairs your ability to perform your duties. You are more likely to make mistakes in judgment such as serving underage or obviously intoxicated patrons. Therefore, drinking alcohol during your shift is not allowed.
Ø We will not assume a patron wants alcohol. Instead of saying, "May I bring you a cocktail?" say, "May I bring you a beverage?"
Ø We will promote “alternative beverages.” This is any beverage that can take the place of alcohol. The purpose is for pacing drinking, slowing intoxication, preparing to drive, or offering a beverage choice besides alcohol. Examples are: coffee, juices, mineral water, flavored waters, seltzer, non-alcoholic or low-alcoholic content beverages.
Ø We will provide and promote “mocktail” non-alcoholic drinks that are similar to popular cocktails.
Ø We make sure that we know who is getting each drink.
Ø We will not bring a drink for anyone who is not present.
Ø We will count drinks.
Ø We will use measured shots, rather than free pouring to ensure against over pouring. (Shots will be one ounce, rather than 1-1/2 or 2 ounces.)